The Ministry of Justice has confirmed that disgraced former celebrity publicist Max Clifford has died in prison.

The 74-year-old was said to be ‘in a bad way’ after he collapsed twice at Littlehey Prison in Cambridgeshire, where he was serving an eight-year jail sentence for historic sex offences.

Clifford died in hospital on December 10.

File photo dated 11/03/14 of Max Clifford. Publicist Max Clifford has died in hospital after collapsing at Littlehey Prison in Cambridgeshire, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice has said (Image: Sean Dempsey/PA Wire)

The spokesman said: "As with all deaths in custody, there will be an investigation by the independent Prisons and Probation Ombudsman."

"Our condolences are with Mr Clifford's family at this difficult time."

Cornwall Live reports that his daughter Louise, 46, told the Mail on Sunday that Clifford first collapsed in his cell on Thursday when he was trying to clean it.

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Max Clifford was the PR guru whose fall from grace was chronicled with the sort of front-page publicity he toiled to earn - and similarly avoid - for his celebrity clients.

The shamed publicity puppet master had crafted a reputation for garnering maximum exposure for the fame-hungry wannabes in his charge, while maximising his extensive Fleet Street contacts to help keep other clients off the front pages when needed.

His CV - much of which he regaled in subsequent court cases as well as his autobiography Read All About It - boasted an impressive roster of one-time clients.

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But as Clifford passed his half-century in the showbiz industry, allegations began to emerge that would later dismantle his considerable empire.

And when the tables turned, with Clifford becoming the story, he found himself on the receiving end of untruths - about the size of his penis (descriptions in court varying from "tiny" to "enormous", but being settled by a doctor as "average").

There was further irony that, having spent decades exposing the intimate parts of other people's lives, one of Clifford's most personal details - his manhood - attracted considerable tabloid attention during his 2014 trial. He would eventually be convicted of eight counts.

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Clifford's extensive contacts in Fleet Street - he described himself as "often poacher and gamekeeper at the same time" - meant he was increasingly turned to as a commentator on matters involving the media.

When aged celebrities began being arrested on suspicion of sex crimes, Clifford took to the radio claiming that former household names were "frightened to death" of falling under suspicion.

Operation Yewtree was launched in October 2012 by Scotland Yard after Jimmy Savile was finally exposed as a prolific paedophile in an ITV documentary.

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Days after the inquiry started, Clifford appeared on LBC and said in the 1960s and 1970s some stars "never asked for anybody's birth certificate".

He would have a child of his own, Louise, who suffered severe physical difficulties from birth which meant Clifford - who was teetotal because he "didn't like the taste of it" - would wake several times in the night to tend to her. She was a regular visitor in the public gallery during Clifford's court cases, supporting her father.

Clifford's first wife, Liz, died in 2003, having been cheated on repeatedly during their near-40 years of matrimony.

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Clifford, a self-confessed "ringmaster" at sex parties he organised, would re-marry in 2010, tying the knot with his former PA Jo Westwood.

By the time he appeared in court to successfully defend a historic accusation of indecent assault on a teenage girl in 2016, Clifford had swapped rubbing shoulders with A-list clients and reality TV stars for fellow inmates at the Category C Littlehey prison in Cambridgeshire.

He vowed to clear his name - claiming he was wrongfully convicted in 2014 - and said he was "an easy target" for financially motivated fantasists.

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And while his defence that he was wrongly convicted of all allegations remained as vehement as ever, his resistance to the ageing process did not have the same stoicism.

Face drawn and body withered - Clifford told jurors he had lost two stone in weight since being jailed - the only colour left in his face was the final dark hues from his once bushy, jet black eye brows.

The deep tan was gone, replaced with a skin tone more befitting someone whose freedom was restricted to, he said, 30 minutes outside of a cell per day at times.

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Defence counsel Sarah Forshaw QC warned jurors of Clifford's short attention span, and of likely memory lapses owing to her client's age and the time which had elapsed between alleged incident and the court appearance.

His power of recall showed little signs of wear, however, when it came to name-dropping famous former clients.

His breathless evidence was punctuated by celebs until he was asked, almost wearily, to desist by his own defence counsel.